User login

Briefing: "Operation Streamline: Costly, Unjust and Ineffective"

THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH AND RIGHTS WORKING GROUP ARE PLEASED TO INVITE YOU TO A BRIEFING FOR CONGRESSIONAL STAFF ON

OPERATION STREAMLINE: COSTLY, UNJUST AND INEFFECTIVE

As Congress and the White House take up Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”), some have called for increased southwest border enforcement, even though southwest border apprehensions are at their lowest levels in 40 years and net migration from Mexico is at zero. Operation Streamline, a controversial border enforcement initiative, has created a civil rights and human rights crisis of such proportion that the Vatican has called for its suspension. Operation Streamline treats unlawful border crossers as high-level federal criminal justice priorities – routing border crossers into the overcrowded federal prison system. Operation Streamline has also contributed to the dramatic increase of Latinos in federal prison serving time for immigration-status crimes. The spike in federal immigration criminal prosecutions has burdened federal courts, increased the federal prison population, and profited private prison companies – all at a time when deep government spending cuts loom ahead. Please join our panel of experts for a timely discussion of Operation Streamline.

Experts on the panel:

Judge James Stiven, Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of California

Heather E. Williams, First Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of Arizona

Grace Meng, Researcher, U.S. Program, Human Rights Watch

Moderator: Kevin Appleby, Director of the Office of Migration Policy and Public Affairs, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops